Those who missed Allentown’s annual Mayfair this year should be happy to know the festival will be back next year thanks to Cedar Crest College.
The annual festival of the arts began in 1987 as a free festival in the city’s Cedar Beach Park, but was later fenced off and ultimately moved to Allentown Fairgrounds to give programming access to indoor facilities.
Lauren Condon, director of Student Union and Engagement at Cedar Crest, said the school plans to revive Mayfair, which held its last festival in 2016.
“We’ve always been a very active part of the community and the Lehigh Valley, and we have a very strong arts program here,” Condon said. “It seemed natural for us to pick up the baton and run with it.”
Over the traditional Memorial Day Weekend May 25-27, Cedar Crest will hold the festival on its campus.
Like the original incarnation of the festival, it will feature food and craft vendors, artists, music and live performances. Admission and on-campus parking will be free.
Condon told Lehigh Valley Business that it is very important to the school to return Mayfair to a free event.
“We don’t want there to be any barriers to anyone who wants to go,” she said.
Funding for the arts festival was always one of the main hurdles to making it a success, but Condon said Cedar Crest is confident it has the infrastructure and experience to mitigate many of the cost areas. They include paying for a venue (it will be held on campus) and security (Cedar Crest has its own police force).
Cedar Crest will be starting from scratch on funding the Mayfair event.
Condon said the school likely will hold fundraisers for seed money for Mayfair 2018. She noted no money was left over from the Mayfair organization to jump-start this event.
She said the organizers at the school will soon be reaching out to local food vendors, artists and musicians to participate in next year’s event.
